Ski Edges

A snowHead

I'm new to this skiing lark. I've read on this forum that ski edges can rust if not maintained and stored correctly. Simple question; why don't they make the edges out of stainless steel? The marine industry makes almost all metal fitments out of stainless. Just curious.

A snowHead

There's an old thread on TG that suggests it could be because they'd be more expensive and more difficult to sharpen.

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You can never get an edge of stainless as sharp as a carbon steel material.

Some other examples follow the same, professional chefs' knives are carbon steel usually, regularly sharpened and oiled to prevent corrosion when not in use. The sharpening steel is mainly a giant deburr tool.

Engineering cutters, again favour carbon steel over stainless for cutting steel materials amongst others.

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Makes sense. Not being a metallurgist, I was unaware of the properties of the various types of steel. Thanks for explaining it.

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In the late 90's Atomic mad a few pairs of skis with Chrome edges, bloody awful things to work on as a Tech. You could only sharpen them with a diamond stone and they wrecked normal grinding belts and stone grinders. They were supposed to hold sharpness better, but no one bothered to re shapen the dammed things

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Lot of disinformation in this thread, already ......

As an idealist you'd wan't the hardest edges possible, makes sense ...... but they need to bend.

As an engineer you'd realise that 'hard' and 'flexible' are two different things.

'Stainless Steel' comes in many different forms ...... Sorry.

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Can you please enlighten is further BCJohnny?

@Duplo, for one thing they have different grades that have different resistance to rust. I've seen plenty of 'stainless steel' items (such as handrails or staircases) rust when they're in a seaside resort.

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Can you have a flexible but hard steel, or are those two properties a trade off against each other? Interesting the point Idris made about she edges tat were so hard they couldn't be sharpened easily, so people couldn't be bothered. I guess you have to have relatively easy maintenance or people wont do it and you'll end up with a blunter edge in the end!

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@Duplo, you can get both properties within the same component. For example a band saw blade may be made of a heat treatable steel that makes the teeth hard and more brittle but leaving the support part of the blade in a more flexible state. They do this by selectively treating the lead edge which alters the material's structure just locally along that edge. This may be closest to and relevant in form and scale to a ski's edge.

@BCjohnny, I thought the original responses to the OP covered the subject in a reasonable way which they've acknowledged and without going toward an overtly technical depth. Are you just going to lob a grenade in and leg it? Or, intend to elaborate on our shortcomings?

'Engineers' come in many different forms, amongst them plastics, chemical, mechanical..........sorry. Toofy Grin

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I prefer engineers to be more civil.

You know it makes sense.

Anyone else remember the Veilhaber MTBs with segmented edges?

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@Mosha Marc, Laughing

A snowHead

@Mosha Marc, haha!!

A snowHead

Dode yes, they were the cutting edge for their time Laughing

My first pair of skis had I think screw on edges. Short separate sections screwed into the wood Shocked

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@Mosha Marc Laughing

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@philwig, do people ever use those small bags of Silica gel in their ski bags? They are cheap as chips to buy. I dry mine off with kitchen towel after every use, and let the stand in a warm room, but have still got what looks like a tiny spot of rust on one edge already; and I only bought them in August. Crying or Very sad

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@Awdbugga, ski edges rust. When you service them or ski on them, the rust comes off. As long as you're not storing them in a swamp, the rust build up will be manageable.

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@Scarlet, Thanks.

After all it is free

Here another engineer.... Very Happy

Not a civil engineer, but more civil Smile

In reality there are a lot of different types of steel between carbon steel and stainless steel, as the amount of corrosion resistance depends on how much chromium and nickel is used. Less chromium, is less corrosion resistance.

However, the addition of chromium makes stainless steel brittle and thus not flexible as mentioned before. Also, brittle metals tend to crack easily when you hit for example a stone. This would render any modern ski quite useless as the metal edges are sandwiched in. Furthermore, a brittle material will lose the edge very quickly as the sharpened edge will chip the second you scrape over hardpack or ice.

And the most important reason that a high corrosion resistant steel cannot be used: stainless has very quick and severe work hardening. Grinding stainless on a machine will leave an edge that is absolutely impossible to sharpen with files. Also skiing will work harden the edge (to a lesser extent) but still will absolutely destroy your files. It's just not a practical material to use.

In reality manufacturers might use a bit of chromium, or carbon....the exact type of steel they never specify. But it will never be to the extent we will call it stainless because that is an unworkable material to repeatedly sharpen and keep an edge on.

Hope that explains why ski edges rust....a bit. Very Happy

I mostly just quickly wipe them with a rag or (paper) towel (base and most importantly the sides) then stand them upright in a locker with the base away from the wall so that any residue snow in the bindings will not leak onto the edges. If they need to be dropped in the car, I will put them outside in the sun for an hour with the base turned away from the sun (UV is no good for plastics). If there is no sun.....then I'm basically out of luck and do my best with a towel and hope for the best. Most rust is superficial and will easily come off with a diamond file. The worst is rust between the sidewall and the edge.... that will never come out again and will get worse over time. But then again.... 2-3 seasons and then the ski's need replacement anyway as their overall stiffness and torsion-stiffness is gone. Smile

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Ski Edges

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